Originally Posted by
lrickets
"Originally Posted by john398 View Post
They have said in customer letters they do not have a policy either way
Seat saving brouhaha
post 69 letter to customer says:
"Truthfully, we don’t have a policy either way--for or against--saving seats. In fact, we share our perspective on this issue on southwest.com as follows: "because Southwest Airlines maintains an open-seating policy, general-boarding Customers may sit in any open or unclaimed seat." With this in mind, as long as there is no Safety concern, it would be acceptable for a Customer to "claim" a seat for his/her family member or traveling companion who may be in a later boarding group. We are aware that the saving of seats is a by-product of our policy, and as long as the boarding process is not delayed and other Customers aren't inconvenienced, it usually isn’t a significant issue.""
(bold added by me)
See I guess interpreting this is in the eye of the beholder. They clearly say they don't have a policy for it either way. Then they say if there is no safety concern its acceptable to save a seat
except if the boarding process is delayed or other customers are inconvenienced. Clearly the OP was inconvenienced. Someone was saving the only remaining non-middle seat and the OP was holding an earlier boarding number than whoever was expecting to sit in that seat (even though he didn't shell out for EB). The way I read this is WN basically trying not to get involved by saying people can save a seat as long as it doesn't bother someone else - i.e. save a seat unless someone else wants it.
I can see why WN would want to stay away from this issue. If they come out firmly against seat saving they are going to scare away their target clientele which is mostly budget-minded leisure travelers who travel in groups. They aren't frequent flyers and if they think they might not get to sit together they may be scared off.
If they came out in favor of seat saving they are opening up a can of worms and specifically contradicting their own explicit policies of choosing your seat based on your boarding position.
Unfortunately it sounds like that ambiguity leads to problems sometimes when the occasional selfish and entitled-feeling person is saving good seats (i.e. window, aisle, or exit row).